Wild weekend at the Catdome

When
we first walked out onto the field itself, this was the scene. Nice
surface, scoreboard, video board. Oh, and the
mountains.Photo by Pat
Coleman, D3sports.com

McMINNVILLE, Ore. -- So this weekend’s trip to Linfield
led me to the conclusion that having D3football.com publisher Pat
Coleman and I in the house is the Division III equivalent of
bringing ESPN’s Game Day crew to town.

It works on a couple levels, because we’re low-budget (no
set, no actual show) like Division III is, and yet our presence
generated an almost uneasy level of excitement. We got our names on
a store’s sign in downtown McMinnville, were welcomed on the
scoreboard (something I only remember happening once before, at
UW-Whitewater), got offers to be taken to dinner, breakfast and
more dinner when we got back to the D.C. area, were invited to the
tailgate, received a plate of brownies literally with our names on
it, had our picture taken with the Linfield cheerleaders (a
D3football.com first), were given small gifts and even stayed one
night with a host “family.” -- Wildcat11 of Northwest
Conference Post Patterns fame, his wife (a former Linfield
basketball player and coach) and their two dogs.

From the moment we touched down in Oregon to Sunday’s return
flight, nearly everything about our visit was second-to-none. The
hospitality and the game-day atmosphere was top notch, and those
who followed Linfield to Hardin-Simmons last season made sure we
knew Abilene, Texas, was the same way.

The whole thing, however, was a bit much. Not that I don’t
love the attention, or the respect people show the D3sports.com
sites whenever we travel. It’s something deep-rooted that all
journalists struggle with. You never play favorites, you never take
gifts, you pay for your own food and accommodations. You are there
for the story and nothing but the story.

And yet there’s something so human about the Division III
football experience. Regardless of socio-economic, racial or
religious boundaries, or the cultural differences geography
creates, I keep finding that we all have something in common. A
love of sport for sport’s sake. A genuine friendliness.
Something so storybookish one wouldn’t expect it to exist in
2007, but there it is on display, every Saturday. That is
the story.

Besides, there’s no rule of journalism that says you
can’t have a soul.But Pat and I still feel like we’re
there to see the show, not be the show. There was plenty of show in
then-No. 15 Linfield’s 52-42, 1,191-yard shootout with
then-No. 19 Hardin-Simmons on Saturday. And it would have gone on
whether or not we were there to witness it.

That’s why I can never shake the feeling that no matter what
Game of the Week I’m at, there are a hundred-and-some
I’m missing. To players, coaches, parents, alumni and fans,
their game is the Game of the Week. A matchup of ranked teams on a
beautiful Oregon day is nice, but do you think anyone at Anderson
was checking the score while they watched their team lose a 26-23
overtime nailbiter to Earlham? Mount Ida and SUNY-Maritime
weren’t sweating us while they had their own shootout going
on, a 44-38 Mustangs win in overtime.

Just as ‘big game’ is in the eye of the beholder, so
is ‘big time.’ We Division III types might be the ones
who help you up after a tackle or hold hands in prayer at midfield
after a game, but we’re still football players. We thrive on
competition and live for Saturdays. I’ve seen some nice guys
do some mean things to each other in between the white lines. We
might not genuinely hate the other side (as Darrell Aune, a
longtime Oregon State broadcaster now working for Linfield pointed
out), but we need that other side, if only to push us to give our
best.

They’re all big-time big games to someone. So it’s
often hard to focus on just one. Next Saturday, when you catch a
glimpse of the joy, or anguish, on the faces of players and fans as
they experience football’s ups and downs, try to imagine that
taking place simultaneously from coast to coast. Each final score
is a joy or a disappointment that will be burned into the minds of
players/coaches/parents for years to come.

Also, I realize that we travel vicariously for the vast majority
of Division III fans out there, who either have their own teams to
worry about most Saturdays or have lives where Saturdays require
lawns mowed and gutters cleaned instead of games attended. I fully
realize my descriptions and photos are all many of you will have
when it comes to touring Division III’s football stadiums on
game day (see Feedback below for more on stadiums).

Linfield is unique and yet still seems to represent
everywhere-Division III-USA. Maxwell Field is a great mix of old
and new, featuring an expansive concrete-and-wood covered
grandstand as well as intros on the video board and FieldTurf on
the football field and baseball infield.

Besides the game, the highlight of our visit was probably stopping
by Saturday’s tailgate. We met all the Post Patterns fans and
fanatics -- too many to shout out individually. Those who called
each other by old football nicknames, or wore T-shirts from when
Linfield was NAIA, brought home how much Wildcat camaraderie is
very much everyone’s camaraderie. Almost as much as the game,
the memories and the relationships are the Division III football
experience.

And yet, it’s not all hunky-dory.

A couple of Linfield die-hards from the tailgate, guys who
wouldn’t look out of place in a biker bar, spent much of the
game on the Hardin-Simmons sideline giving the Cowboys hell. Hey,
Division III football just seems storybookish sometimes. I
witnessed that, and a Cowboys player vocally letting a Linfield end
know how he’d just been dominated -- on a routine point-after
block!

The coaches -- Hardin-Simmons’ Jimmie Keeling and
Linfield’s Joe Smith -- repeated to me how much the other was
a class act.

After the game, Smith also talked about the Linfield family -- as
literal family and friends milled about in the background on the
game field. It seemed anyone and everyone came down from the stands
to bask in glory of victory. Not many places show this much
love.

What stood out, however, were two fairly surreal examples of what
a small world it can become with Division III football, as well as
D3football.com, keeping us all linked.

Chris Wyly, a middle-aged man in a green cap and leather vest,
introduced himself as a Linfield graduate from way back (1974) who
now spends his days in Mongolia. Before last season, he said it had
been 20 years since he’d been back to campus. And if it
wasn’t for him snapping digital photos of everything that
moved, you’d have thought he hangs out with Linfield’s
tailgaters every home game. “Mongolia, huh? Alright. Good
stuff!” Linfield quarterback Trevor Scharer said when
introduced to Wyly after the game.

Olinemom, a frequent poster from the Old Dominion Athletic
Conference boards and supporter of Bridgewater (Va.), roughly a
mere 2,500 miles away, was there visiting, and calling out updates
from the Eagles’ game with Ferrum.

“21-0!” she’d yell to whoever was paying
attention. “41-3” she said later, tailgating with
Linfield’s finest while keeping home (and the Eagles’
famous Stone Station) close to her heart.

All I could think is “what the heck is she doing
here?”

Her presence, and ours, was probably a symbol of an overriding
theme. Wherever there’s a Division III game on Saturday is
home. Linfield is wonderfully unique and overwhelmingly hospitable.
And yet, it’s fair to say Pat and I would have received
similar treatment a lot of places.

Photo by Ryan
Carlson for D3sports.com

The more I travel, the more I find there’s a tie that
binds the Division III fans of the world. There’s a pull,
some kind of togtherness, a shared feeling that’s bigger than
Pat and Keith, bigger than D3football.com. Actually, it’s
hard to put into words.

Scheduling conflict

After Saturday’s defeat at Linfield, coupled with their
season-opening 47-21 home loss to UW-La Crosse, it’s fair to
ask: Did Hardin-Simmons schedule itself out of the playoffs?

There’s very little doubt in my mind that the team I saw
Saturday, defensive warts and all, is better than probably 10 teams
who will make the 32-team playoff field at the end of the season.
They would probably kick the snot out of several teams who are
going to win their conferences.

Yet, after their opening games, the only road to the postseason
for Hardin-Simmons involves running the table in the American
Southwest.

Normally, that’s not an impossible proposition. But
conference foe Mary Hardin-Baylor is deep and experienced, and off
to a start that justifies their No. 2 ranking and leads many to
believe beating them will be a tough task, even though the Cowboys
host Oct. 6.

So I asked Cowboys coach Jimmie Keeling what he felt he got out of
scheduling La Crosse and Linfield.

“We like to play good people and we have,”
Hardin-Simmons’ 17th-year head coach said. “We faced a
second opponent that played well. We’re doing some things
well, but not enough right now.”

It’s more than just the traditional ‘schedule tough to
prepare for the conference slate’ philosophy.

“When you play somebody pretty good, they show you things
that you have to work on,” Keeling said. “We’ll
be all right.”

Although Linfield coach Joe Smith said “we pretty much have
to schedule whoever will schedule us,” he did acknowledge how
much “fun” it was to play a program of
Hardin-Simmons’ caliber.

“That was one of the better games I’ve been involved
in,” Smith said.

And isn’t that what it’s all about? Fun. Great games
for the fans. Great challenges for the players?

It brings me back to a philosophy Christopher Newport coach Matt
Kelchner often shares with D3football.com. Players want to play in
big games. They want to be challenged. They aren’t going to
get the TV exposure or the extensive media coverage, but they still
enjoy a dim spotlight.

So why not schedule the best, especially when an automatic bid is
available in conference play?

Kelchner is a man of his word. His first three opponents, Rowan,
Mary Hardin-Baylor and Salisbury are all ranked in this
week’s top 25. Kelchner’s Captains, 1-2, are not.

When the MAC melted to eight teams from 11 this offseason, the
conference ditched its nine-game round-robin that occasionally left
a team with all 10 other MAC teams on its schedule but only nine
conference games that count, because of the odd number.

Instead, Wilkes, Delaware Valley and Widener were freed to
schedule with the best of the NJAC, in Rowan and Montclair State,
and ACFC top dog Wesley. USAC preseason favorite N.C. Wesleyan also
joined the open-schedule mix, and mid-Atlantic clashes like
Albright-Kean, William Paterson-Wilkes and Montclair
State-Springfield have already influenced the top 25.

Aren’t we as fans all benefiting from aggressive scheduling?
Would you prefer we go back to the days when powerhouses like Rowan
and Lycoming sat a short bus ride apart and played nine games
instead of figuring out how to schedule each other?

The automatic qualifier has been great for Division III football
in that way.

So if Hardin-Simmons misses the postseason, they’ll only be
able to blame something that happened on the field. With so few
absolutes in life, let alone other divisions of college football,
the fact that each team can trace its playoff bid or lack of one to
something they did or didn’t do is nothing short of
wonderful. Even Cortland State and Franklin, each left out at 9-1
last season, know they were each a touchdown short of their
automatic bid.

When teams have a clear path to the playoffs, and therefore the
championship, it takes the guesswork and subjectivity out of
assembling the field. Which leaves the top 25 polls to simply try
to determine who the 25 best teams in the nation are, and nothing
more.

My 26-35

Speaking of the top 25 poll, that’s exactly what
it’s meant to do.

Here’s where I share thoughts of a D3football.com voter and
a list of schools on the brink of the top 25.

I don’t have much to nitpick with regarding this
week’s top 25 and thought I might again have little to say.
Twenty-two of the 25 teams on my ballot show up in the poll’s
top 25. (More typical at this point in the season is about 18-20).
I moved Capital, the fourth OAC team, back into my top 25 after a
convincing 40-0 blowout of Wilmington, and more importantly a
second consecutive shutout.

Then, along came the implication that D3football.com voters
aren’t trying very hard or using their heads while voting,
because 0-2 Hardin-Simmons is ranked 20th this week. Anyone who
expects to be able to judge the strength of teams solely off
won-loss records is missing the point big-time.

The fact the Cowboys are ranked is a source of pride for our poll,
not embarrassment. In fact, the very reason D3football.com even
established its own poll is because we couldn’t trust any
other poll or ranking to provide a reasonably accurate read on the
strength of the teams. (For more on this topic, see this post on the Daily Dose, our blog.)

I have a 2½ year old who can organize 25 teams by who has
the most wins. D3football.com readers aren’t stupid, they
don’t need us for that. Our voters’ expertise is
important because we are either coaching in, working or attending
games most Saturdays. We are paying attention to the subplots, not
just the final scores. I personally take at least 30 minutes to
craft and re-craft my ballot each week, because of the depth of
understanding necessary to process Saturday’s outcomes.

Ranking Hardin-Simmons is not a case of a team living off name
recognition. It has nothing to do with the expectations of success
against higher-ranked teams. In the end, sometimes you have to ask
yourself, do I really think Team X would beat Team Y at a neutral
site?

Clearly, Hardin-Simmons has issues with tackling and covering
people. Ninety-nine points allowed is bad. But there are
200-some-odd teams who would have similar or worse issues against
No. 5 La Crosse and No. 13 Linfield. Who’s got the Eagles
losing more than one game the rest of the way? Who’s got the
Wildcats losing again at all? Flukes aside, not me. Now that
they’ve settled on Justin Fester at quarterback, do you dare
pencil the Cowboys in for fewer than seven wins?

Wins most definitely count for something. But we’re
measuring strength here, as in the 25 best, not necessarily the 25
most successful. So who you play matters. It has to.

I learned more about Hardin-Simmons’ strength when it
rallied from down 26-7 to take two third-quarter leads against
Linfield than I would by watching it or some other top 25 team keep
its record blemish-free by pummeling some overmatched opponent.

The fact that our voters go beneath the surface to come up with
the most accurate ranking possible is why D3football.com’s
poll remains the most respected and significant, and I’m
proud to be associated with it.

The top teams outside my top 25 but on the brink of getting in
with continued strong play are UW-Oshkosh, St. Olaf and
Springfield.

I voted for Rowan and not Christopher Newport, and probably
shouldn’t have based on the head-to-head result, even though
the Profs just beat Wilkes and the Captains are 0-2 since that win.
Maybe I should be voting for neither.

I may have also erred by throwing Guilford a bone at No. 25 and
letting Springfield drop from the top 10 out entirely after losing
to Montclair State. That’s too strong a penalty for a 33-30
defeat.

Wabash, Hobart, John Carroll, Mississippi College, Redlands and
Mt. St. Joseph are among those on the radar now. Widener and N.C.
Wesleyan are among those who will have a chance to play their way
back into the poll down the line. Muhlenberg and Albright have
become intriguing, while Ithaca, Cortland State, Christopher
Newport and Carnegie Mellon fell off my ballot with their
losses.

1. With Montclair State and Wesley each undefeated so far despite
two of the mid-Atlantic’s most difficult opening schedules,
one is going to use the other to propel itself to a great regular
season when they clash on Saturday.

2. Let’s welcome our academically elite friends to the party
as NESCAC play gets underway Saturday. Unfortunately, none of this
week’s games look too appealing, although you never can tell
year-to-year in that conference. Williams will put its win streak
(see Streak Watch, below) on the line next week at Trinity (Conn.)
in possibly the biggest NESCAC game of the year, archrivalries
excluded.

3. Toss out St. Thomas’ 0-3 start, and the MIAC is 16-4 with
four unbeatens. St. John’s and St. Olaf are to be expected,
but Gustavus Adolphus (32 points per game in wins vs. Willamette
and St. Thomas) and Carleton (outscored Minnesota-Morris and
Macalester 83-10) are off to unblemished starts as well.

4. Speaking of Morris, the Cougars’ 77-13 win Saturday could
be the week’s ‘wow’ result, but it actually
represented progress for Principia. The Panthers, ranked 238 of 238
this preseason in Kickoff ’07, had come off two losses in
which it was outscored 108-3. One of the losses was 46-3 to No. 237
Crown, and the other came against No. 222 Macalester.

5. Hartwick’s 32-30 win against Ithaca was perhaps the
program’s biggest since an 8-2 season in 2002, but it made
even less sense given the Hawks were whomped 48-21 in Week 1 at
Western New England. Unless you’re ready to say a NEFC team
can hang with the top half of the Empire 8, these results pretty
much kill the usefulness of comparing scores. Either that or Ithaca
isn’t very good. Stay tuned.

6. Smothering defenses: Muhlenberg (has pitched shutouts against
The College of New Jersey and Union), Occidental (has done the same
at Lewis & Clark and Menlo) and Capital (has also done it, at
Wittenberg and Wilmington).

7. Struggling offenses: Bluffton (9 points in home games vs.
Centre and Adrian), MacMurray (8 points against Augustana and
Rockford) and LaVerne (7 points vs. Puget Sound and Whitworth). But
at least every team has scored so far this year.

8. Wilkes (0-3) might be the season’s early disappointment,
but don’t write the Colonels off yet. Their losses include
two 1-point games and a defeat by a touchdown. With perhaps the
toughest MAC opposition, Delaware Valley and Widener, at the end of
the schedule, the Colonels could build up enough confidence to win
the conference despite the slow start. Of course, the first-round
matchup for a three-loss playoff team is much less favorable than
it is for a 10-0 team.

9. Everyone in the IBFC has a losing record except 1-1 Greenville.
Everyone in the ODAC is off to a winning start except for 1-1 Emory
& Henry.

10. If you believe teams can help themselves in losses, Luther
might have done that in one-score road defeats against top 25s St.
Olaf and Central. Wartburg looms next.

Travel log

When Around the Nation really gets around the nation, I’ll
report back with random things about our trip that didn’t fit
elsewhere:

Oregon initially appeared to be a lot of the things we’d
stereotyped it to be. Light rail runs to the airport. There seemed
to be a disproportion of “fresh” restaurants,
“natural” stores and recycle bins. And, lest you think
the state is overpopulated with earth-loving hippies (not that
that’s the worst thing in the world), one of my first images
from arriving at the airport was a Hummer with Oregon State Beavers
flags in three of the windows and an Oregon flag on the passenger
side front seat. Guess Mom couldn’t convince Dad and the kids
to be Ducks. Or ride in a Prius.

If
you can ignore the surface, the rest of Griswold Stadium at Lewis
and Clark had potential.Photo by Pat
Coleman, D3sports.com

There’s usually a D3 Geek moment on our trips, and this
weekend was no exception. With the plane landing on schedule Friday
night and with the drive from Portland to McMinnville, home of
Linfield, appearing to be under an hour, Pat and I, on a whim once
we saw the highway sign, figured it might be harmless to pull off
and visit Lewis & Clark.

We pulled on to campus and up to the football stadium, fully
illuminated though we weren’t sure who, if anyone, had played
there that night. The Pioneers have the old-school turf and a
covered grandstand set in a half-bowl. All we saw on the field were
a couple guys tossing a Frisbee. Pat and I briefly thought about
challenging them to some 2-on-2 Ultimate Frisbee action, but this
being literally their turf, and assuming what we assume about the
Lewis & Clark culture, we figured we were running into a buzz
saw and thought better of it.

We toured the game field, and the adjacent gym building, home to
much of Lewis & Clark’s athletic history. So much that we
learned the school used to be called Albany College. (Who knew?) We
wandered into the gym (Pat’s a D3hoops guy too, remember) and
I tried a few ball-fakes and Olajuwon fade away post moves on the
Pioneers’ court (such a geek!). And then we went on our merry
way, without running into a single person in the building or ever
being accosted by security.

Oh, Knox kids wish the Monmouth campus were so open during Bronze
Turkey week.

Wildcat11’s directions to his hometown of Lafayette, Ore.,
the last town along 99W before McMinnville, included a note
describing how small his town was. In 45 seconds, he said, you
could drive through it.

I made Pat count. We got to 46-one-thousand before we made our
turn, one of the last in town.

Lafayette also featured an actual meat market. Apparently
that’s not just a phrase.

I’m assuming the place we observed off of I-5 on the way to
McMinnville is a classy establishment. A place named
“Jiggles,” I mean, how could it not be?

They could be up for a truth-in-advertising award though.

The red barn that housed Calamity Jane’s along 99W looked
like it featured a much different type of nightly entertainment.
All I’m saying is don’t ask the DJ to play Funky
Cold Medina.

Yes, there are some more football-related observations in
this week’s column. One of the more interesting moments
during Saturday’s second half came when Linfield’s PA
announcer told of a penalty on Hardin-Baylor. Oops.

How’s that for game-day updates, one Linfield supporter
joked.

Sorry, didn’t have much time or space for game rehash in the
column, but just had to mention that Trevor Scharer passed for 511
yards and six touchdowns. Good lawdy Lord. There’s probably
more of that to come this year too. The Wildcats don’t have
much of a running game, but boy can they wing it.

With conference play beginning in some places, it’s time to
dust off a well-worn cliché -- “You can’t look
beyond this week.” Truthfully, though, that’s exactly
what the contenders need to do -- look beyond Saturday to their
remaining challenges and realize they can’t afford to take a
loss in Week 4. No team wants to be in the position of needing to
run the table and get help to win the conference with
seven weeks left. But some recent playoff participants will be in
that position by Saturday night.

No. 6 St. John Fisher (3-0, 0-0) at Ithaca (2-1,
0-1): The Empire 8 race will be very competitive with four
teams who have received Top 25 votes this year -- St. John Fisher,
Ithaca, Springfield and Alfred. The Cardinals can effectively turn
this into a three-team race with a win here. After Ithaca’s
tough loss to Hartwick, this is a “must win” for the
Bombers, lest they fall two games back in conference. To get a win,
they will have to contain Cardinals running back Ryan Hanson.
Hanson has rushed for 128.7 yards per game, 6.8 yards per carry and
six touchdowns. Alfred and Springfield also meet this week.
It’s also our D3Cast video East Region game of the week.

RPI (2-0, 0-0) at Hobart (1-1, 0-0): Staying in
Upstate New York, this is a tale of two approaches to
non-conference scheduling. Hobart faced 2006 playoff participants
Dickinson and Carnegie Mellon in dramatic games and emerged with a
split. RPI, uh, well, not so much. The Engineers beat Endicott
(cumulative score 103-24 since 2004) and Utica (3-7 in 2006). You
could argue that Hobart’s approach leaves the Statesmen
battle-tested for the Liberty League season. But if quarterback
Jimmy Robertson (576 yards, six touchdowns) and RPI win in Geneva,
that shoots a big hole in that argument. Other contenders are
struggling with their offense (Union) or defense (Rochester), so
this game has even bigger title implications.

UW-Eau Claire (3-0, 0-0) at No. 3 UW-Whitewater (1-1,
0-0): It’s tough to make sense of games against
non-Division III opponents. Should we be worried that the Warhawks
lost to Division II St. Cloud State? Should we be impressed that
the Blugolds beat Southwest Minnesota State and NAIA Black Hills
State? Fortunately we’ll have answers soon enough when these
two open the WIAC season against each other. We’ll also get a
better read on how quarterback Danny Jones (183.5 yards per game,
two touchdowns, one interception) is settling into the Whitewater
offense. At least UW-Eau Claire has momentum entering a stretch
where they’ll play at Whitewater, at UW-Oshkosh (3-0) and vs.
No. 5 UW-La Crosse.

Muhlenberg (2-0, 0-0) at Gettysburg (2-1, 1-0):
If you believe in the predictive powers of math, then Muhlenberg
will shut out Gettysburg. Gettysburg scored 49 points the first
week and just seven the next, followed by 41 points last week.
Muhlenberg has two shutouts. Put the trends together and Muhlenberg
doesn’t allow a point this week! On a more serious note, this
pits a very good Muhlenberg run defense against a very good
Gettysburg run offense. Muhlenberg held its first two opponents to
minus-17 yards rushing, but the Bullets’ Tom Sturges averages
147.3 rushing yards per game.

No. 24 Montclair State (2-0) at No. 7 Wesley
(3-0): The last pick isn’t a conference game, though
it might as well be for Wesley. Since the Wolverines cannot win an
automatic qualifying bid, every regional game is crucial to their
playoff hopes. Montclair State, who broke into the Top 25 by
beating triple-option Springfield, will see a more balanced attack
in Wesley. The Red Hawks started off 2007 with two big wins so a
good showing here should solidify their national standing entering
NJAC play next week.

Taking a look at those unfamiliar names on schedules, and
following Division III teams in interdivisional play:

Division III did not have a good week overall in out-of-division
games, but UW-La Crosse did defeat NAIA traditional power Azusa
Pacific in overtime and second-ranked UW-Whitewater held up in a
10-point loss to St. Cloud State, a team from the North Central, a
Division II power conference.

The most interesting matchup this week is Menlo hosting Division
II Humboldt State, an independent off to an 0-3 start, including
59-0 and 44-0 defeats. Saturday might be time for the Lumberjacks
to take out their frustrations on the Oaks (pun only slightly
intended). Humboldt’s got a listed enrollment of 7,550.
Menlo’s is 700. More than anything, that might speak to how
hard it is for Northern California colleges to schedule games, even
though the schools are more than 300 miles apart.

No ranked opponents at any level are in action in this
week’s interdivision games.

vs. Division I, FCS (0-2 in Week 3, 1-6 in
2007)
The College of New Jersey at La Salle (Fri.)
Iona at Western Connecticut

vs. Division II (0-2 in Week 3, 3-9 in 2007)
Humboldt State at Menlo

vs. NAIA (3-2 in Week 3, 14-3 in 2007)
Waldorf at UW-Stevens Point
Howard Payne at Texas College
Southern Oregon at Willamette

Around the Nation is largely interactive, and since its
inception has made reader feedback a part of the column. We keep a
running board on Post Patterns (under general football) to discuss
issues raised in the column, and we'll share feedback and answer
questions there, as well as in the column occasionally. Send all
correspondence to keith@d3football.com, or use our feedback
form.

Topics of the Week
Share your opinions on whether Hardin-Simmons deserves to be in the
top 25 or not here.

Also, I always wanted to start a Post Patterns thread for photos
of Division III stadiums. It might take me 20 years to see them all
on game day, or 20 months to crisscross the country photographing
them empty. But, with a collective effort, we might be able to
compile a photo-database for us all to enjoy.

I’d thought of coming up with a standard list of shots: Of
the home side and press box, of the visitors side, an end-zone
angle and something where you can see the markings on the field or
turf. We’ve started collecting them at games our
photographers work. And then I see D2Football.com already does
practically the same thing. Here are twoexamples.

Anyway, if anyone’s interested, send feedback.

Call for video

Around the Nation is always looking for video of anything
Division III football-related. That means we'd like to get our
hands on documentaries, local cable broadcasts and re-airs, links
to archived broadcasts and coaches' tapes.

Anyone with access to footage, please send an e-mail to
keith@d3football.com. Arrangements can be made to keep
coaches’ footage private or to pay fans for shipping and
materials.

For journalists and
broadcasters

Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman are available on Thursdays and
Fridays or by appointment to talk Division III football. For more
information, e-mail Keith.

Attention SIDs

Around the Nation is looking for conference media guides this
season, but will follow individual schools online or by request.
Please use your individual login and D3football.com’s
news release capabilities instead of Keith@D3football.com for
general and game-related releases. That way, they get front-page
play and still catch Around the Nation’s attention. Feel free
to send personally addressed e-mail at any time.

To reach Around the Nation by mail, use D3football.com, 13055
Carolyn Forest Dr., Woodbridge, Va., 22192.